This is my pet peeve. Since the inception of the Recreation Enhancement Act "experimental fee program”, charging for hiking in the National Forests, I have not gone hiking in many areas in the Verde Valley, Arizona that I used to love to go to. Especially around Sedona. You can not hike anywhere near Sedona without buying a Red Pock Pass. And that includes just parking your car on the side of the road to look for more than fifteen minutes. Then, there are other trails and state parks in Sedona that charge a separate fee to hike those areas. Well no more. At least for part of it. This decision came down last year in Federal Court:
A Sedona hiker who fought the federal government over a $55 citation for not having a Red Rock Pass on his vehicle has thrown the program into legal limbo.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark E. Aspey issued a ruling Sept. 14, 2010, which limits where a Red Rock Pass is needed.
Aspey ruled the pass is not needed at undeveloped locations that lack six key elements: designated developed parking; a permanent toilet facility; a permanent trash receptacle; an interpretive sign, exhibit or kiosk; picnic tables and security.
On Nov. 2, Sedona hiker James T. Smith parked his vehicle near the Vultee Arch Trailhead off Dry Creek Road northwest of Sedona, hiked into the wilderness and camped overnight.
USFS had designated the 160,000-acre Red Rock Ranger District a HIRA because the amenities are located at locations within its boundaries.
Aspey ruled the USFS had improperly defined a HIRA and had also neglected to seek public input on what defined a HIRA around Sedona.
The USFS could not arbitrarily define an “area” as vast at the Red Rock Ranger District, Aspey wrote. By making Smith’s citation criminal, which is only the court’s right to determine, Aspey wrote, the USFS’ definition of “area” was open to examination.
http://www.redrocknews.com/...
Approximately $800,000 annually is collected from the Red Rock Pass program of which 95 percent is kept locally to provide for high quality recreation, natural resource protection and valuable visitor services. It costs $5 a day, $15 a week or twenty a year.
When is a Red Rock Pass Required?
A Red Rock Pass (or America The Beautiful Interagency Pass, Golden Age or Golden Access) is required when recreating on National Forest land in Red Rock Country, a high-impact recreation area. The pass must be displayed in the windshield of the vehicle.
Vehicles parked on the National Forest in the red rock area that do not display a valid pass in the windshield are subject to receiving a citation.
A pass is not required for incidental stopping to take a photograph or to enjoy a scenic vista (approximately 15 minutes or less).
http://www.redrockcountry.org/...
Aspey also wrote that there was no evidence that in five years that public input was sought or used in the plan to charge visitors the recreation “amenity fee”
This decision does not kill the Red Rock Pass, it just limits the vastness of an area and the requirements those areas must fullfill to charge fees. They Red Rock Ranger District is currently seeking input on what to do from the public:
The Forest Service is also accepting comments by e-mail,here, by following the link under "Red Rock Pass Changes."
It is not just Arizona though:
BUSTED! Los Padres National Forest ticketed 200 Santa Barbara families for parking by the side of the road to let their kids play in a rare snowfall. It seems that little adventure requires an "Adventure Pass." Read the story HERE
The Little Guy won a big one. Many avid hikers have been fighting the fees since 1996 when a two year experimental program called the Recreation Enhancement Act went on forever. My favorite bumper sticker in Sedona the last few years has been “You Can’t See the Forest for the Fees." The Federal Government decided not to properly fund the Forest Service and put the burden on them to find their own money by collecting fees.
Recreation Enhancement Act
REA Summary

• Limiting fees to recreation sites that have a specified minimum level of development and meet specific criteria.
• Providing new public participation opportunities when agencies propose to establish new, or alter existing, recreation fees. For the BLM and the US Forest Service this includes providing Recreation Resource Advisory Committees with an opportunity to review and make recommendations on agency fee proposals.
• Authorizing a new interagency recreation pass – the “America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass
Congress authorized the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program in 1996 (§315, P. L. 104-134, the FY1996 Omnibus Consolidated Recissions and Appropriations Act). The Act directed the National Park Service (NPS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Forest Service (USFS) to implement a fee program at up to 50 recreation sites within their jurisdiction.1 The Act intended to test the feasibility of generating revenues, through fee collection, to recover the costs of operating and maintaining federal recreation sites. The Act gave the agencies discretion in using fee revenues for priority activities, including the maintenance backlog.2 The legislation made fee revenues available for direct and immediate expenditure by the agencies without further appropriation.3 Prior to enactment of P.L. 104-134, recreation revenues in excess of what was necessary to recover the cost of fee collection (15%) were returned to the U.S. Treasury.
Originally authorized as a 2-year demonstration, the program has been extended through FY1999, with fee revenue available for expenditure through FY2002.4 H.R. 4193, the FY1999 Interior Appropriations Act, would amend P.L. 104-134 to extend the demonstration program through FY2001 with revenues available through FY2004.
BLM>Recreation>National Recreation Programs>Recreation Fee/Permit Program >Recreation Enhancement Act
http://www.ncseonline.org/...
See. They did what they did with the drug war. Give the bounty to the enforcers to make them want to keep doing it, since it directly goes into their pockets to perpetuate their jobs. All I’ve seen them do with the fees is hire people to collect them and people to enforce them.
My husband and I went to the Red Rock Ruins about 13 years ago. It was a place we had gone to for decades, and very few people ever went there. There are a few ruins and it probably dates to the Basketmaker period. But the attraction is a cliff of petroglyphs that runs for miles and miles along a red sandstone trail. I have never seen so many petroglyphs in any one area, ever, and I have been to many, many ruins and petroglyph areas.
We had not been there for awhile. Pink Jeep Tours had started taking lots of visitors there. Because of the REA the USFS set up a little shack, built a small paved parking area and were charging people $5 each to hike the area.
I asked the “ FS fee taker” why they were doing this. “To protect the petroglyphs,” she said.
“Well, don’t you think you’re a little late?" I asked.
The petroglyphs had already been there over a thousand years and there was “graffitti” that dated to the early 1800”s. I don’t like people who feel the need to leave their name on an archealogical treasure. It is disrespectful, criminal, uncouth, disgusting. It is like painting on the Mona Lisa. But it was a little late. In the seventies one guy had sat in a certain section for months drawing pictures of spaceships on the walls while he waited for the visitors. People who saw them, and didn’t know this, thought the ancient people had done it. Sedona has always been strange. Vortexes and all that. Anyway, you can’t even go there anymore. It is totally closed off to the public. There really was no way to protect the petroglyphs and bringing more people there didn’t help. I don’t care how much the fee was.
This is not about protecting anything. It is about getting fees to fund their departments.
On Dec. 8, 2004, Congress passed the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which specifically repealed the 1996 Recreation Fee Demonstration Program — the congressional authorization for the Red Rock Pass.
The FLREA established a fee could be charged if a High-Impact Recreation Area had the six developed amenities but other areas were not subject to the fee.
The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA) was enacted December 8, 2004 (REA; PL 108-447, Section 804), and provides Federal land-managing agencies with long-term recreation fee authority. It specifically authorizes these agencies, including the BLM, to reinvest recreation fees at the local recreation sites where they were collected to benefit visitors through enhanced facilities and services.
http://www.blm.gov/...
Smith decided not to pay the $55 fine. The Vulte Arch Trail parking area is ten miles away from a trash receptacle and seven from a toilet. His refusal to pay made the citation criminal and the US Forest service fined him. He had read the legslation and decided the area did not fall in to the definition of a fee area.
Smith found the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition had been fighting some of the 90 similar programs nationwide. He contacted it for some legal advice and then filed a motion to dismiss.
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition is a broad-based organization consisting of diverse interests including hiking, biking, boating, equestrian and motorized enthusiasts, community groups, local and state elected officials, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, and just plain citizens. We have members and member groups in 33 states.
Our goals are:
• To eliminate recreation fees for general access to public lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management
• To eliminate backcountry fees and interpretive program fees in National Parks, once an Entrance Fee has been paid
• To require more accountability within the land management agencies
• To encourage Congress to adequately fund our public lands
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition supports passage of The Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act, sponsored by Senator Max Baucus. Under the Fee Repeal Act, policies that worked well for over thirty years under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 will be reinstated, and the decade-long failed experiment with recreation user fees will end.
At this site you can learn about the history and current status of recreation user fees, read related laws, read press coverage of the fee issue from around the country, and find out how to take action to help restore the American heritage of public access to public lands.
http://westernslopenofee.org/
It’s not just the Red Rock area though. Since the passage of the REA the push has been on to make more and more popular hiking areas that have always been free, fee areas.
Forest Service blinks in Pacific Northwest. Were they afraid another loss in court would kill their trailhead fees? DETAILS HERE
PUBLIC INPUT ON SEDONA RED ROCK PASS! Flagstaff judge rules against Red Rock Pass fee program in Arizona! Details HERE.
Colorado Alert! Fees coming to four "fourteeners"! Read how you can help stop it HERE.
Listen to the podcast about the approval of 72 new and increased fees on three National Forests in Oregon and Washington!
Independent video exposes fee for parking (prohibited by law) at concessionaire-operated Forest Service site in Colorado! There are many more fees like it nationwide - when will Congress act to rein in the out-of-control public lands agencies?
Forest Service 2008 Visitation Report Shows Continued Decline
The lastest report from the Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring program, issued July 23, 2009, shows continued declines in the number of people visiting public lands.
Read the 2008 report HERE. Comparison table by Region for 2001-2008 HERE.
September 2008 report shows that the Forest Service and BLM are suppressing public participation in fee decisions!
Read the report HERE!
YouTube Video Slams Mt Evans Fee
The requirement for Red Rock passes for many areas around Sedona have been suspended for now, until the forest service decides what they will do next. Go hiking in the red rocks around Sedona fast! I’m going to. since I haven’t been there in a decade. I don’t like paying fees to hike in my National Forests. It is a failure of our governement to properly fund National Public Lands. It is always a favorite of Republicans to attack. The only see them in terms of any manner of resource development, logging and mining.
I still know a few beautiful places that don't charge fees, but they are going fast. Fossil Creek is the newest site they have chosen to begin fees. Hike the wilderness while it’s free.